Thursday Fun

Today Toby and I took the day to head to Barton Creek Greenbelt for some hiking and swimming. We took Bo with us so we mostly ended up hanging out at the falls.

As to avoid the crowds, we parked and entered at the Scottish Woods Trail neighborhood. This meant we had to hike down - and subsequently back UP - The Hill of Life. I like to call it 'hell hill', but after my steep, upward hike last week it didn't seem as extreme as I once thought.

It was an extremely hot day so the water felt nice and cool.

I don't know what was up with Bo's expression here, but he resembles a hippo....hahaha

Love Leaf

Cooling off

It was a nice relaxing day.

Morning People

There are two types of people: Morning people and night people. I'm a full-fledged morning person.

Morning brings hope and newness to the day, before the drudgery of daily activities (cooking, cleaning, random annoyances, etc.) have settled upon me by the end of the day. Morning is like a surprise gift waiting to be opened. Sometimes you get a great gift, and sometimes the gift would have been better left unwrapped.

In my leisure time this week I worked up a couple of crochet items....

Toby and I took Bo hiking through the park. It was really hot! Even though we set out early, we were all drained from the heat. Bo with his mass muscle tone and low endurance collapsed once we made it back to the car.

This guy has taken up residence at my back fence....

River Place Nature Trail - The Good Tired

On the 23rd of July, I will turn 51 years young. Toby asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday and hiking was the first thing that came to mind.

I had our hike picked out weeks ago. Even though the temps are expected to be in the low 100's the reviews of the River Place Nature Trail revealed the hike is a shaded one with plenty of swimming holes along the way.

The trail head was situated directly in the middle of a million dollar  neighborhood with beautiful views of the surrounding hills. I have to admit, I lusted a little at such a lifestyle...

The trail is very well marked with a few kiosk, mile markers and a couple of different emergency exits. After hiking the challenging trail, we knew why there were emergency exits.

The first part of the trail was Little Fern Trail. It was a nice portion of the trail with some little waterfalls to stop, cool off and relax...

Small rocks getting lodged in our water shoes are always an issue

The fish liked Toby's feet

We arrived at a fork in the trail and took Canyon Trail. Little did I know what I was getting into.
The wooden stairs were numerous and some were extremely steep. There was A LOT of descending and ascending (mostly ascending) elevation to this hike 890 feet up to the top!

I got to a point where each time I saw a set of  ascending steps I moaned and silently wondered if I would make it before I had a heart attack.

Once I miraculously made it to the top I realized that I had only THOUGHT that I was in shape for an old lady. But, I did make it!!

The view at the top was totally worth it....

 

Getting back down was much easier, but we worked a different set of muscles. My calf muscles are paying the price as I write.

Once we made it back to the main trail head we had the option of checking out another shorter trail called Lower Panther Trail. We debated and decided as tired, hot and hungry as we were, we were curious enough about the last trail to make it our finale to the day.

It was an easy walk along mostly boardwalk that lead to a retention pond full of turtles...

Despite the physical challenges Toby and I really enjoyed this hike. I recommend it to anyone looking for a challenging hike but it's definitely not for those not with health issues or not "in shape"....hence, the reason for the emergency exits.

I don't think I have ever been so tired, but it was a good tired.

Unplugged

Recently, I've minimally disconnected myself from social interactions. Although, I still peruse "Fake" book a couple of times a day,  I stay focused on our business page, my crochet and recipe pages, other neutral pages, and avoid news feeds and "friends" pages like the plague.

I feel more relaxed when I'm not having to involuntarily witness rants about what "god" says about sexual preferences, politics, racism or the confederate flag. I have my own personal opinions on these topics, but I hardly feel voicing them on social media is neither solving the problems we create in our mind and in fact, believe that it only creates social drama. I hate drama. That said, not everyone can be pleased and it's usually the ones with the loudest bark (and the most influence, and money) who win the game. Since I don't have either of those two things, I remain mostly apathetic to social issues and focus on where it counts the most...my own family.

All that said, I'm very introspective and like to get caught up in my own little world of thoughts so disconnecting is a good excuse to hang out with myself  crocheting, reading or taking pictures.

When I crochet I get fixated on particular projects. Lately, it's been kitchen hot pads. I suppose it's because they are easy to work up and I get to play around with color. I LOVE creating color combos...

This is where professional photography would come in handy. I can guarantee you these hot pads are much prettier in person than they are displayed here.

Other random shots from the past couple of weeks...